The Forest
Xena didn't move.
The woman in midnight blue circled her slowly ,like a hungry predator circling its prey, fingers trailing the air like they were stroking invisible silk. Her eyes deep gray, almost silver... glinted with something feral.
"Daughter of the blue flames," she whispered again, voice so thick with honey it almost made Xena sick, "You've come. Finally."
Xena swallowed hard. "Who are you?"
"Names are for the living," the woman said, smiling too wide again. "But if you must call me something… call me Mother of Echoes."
"That's not creepy at all," Xena muttered.
The woman chuckled. "Oh, sweet flame. You think you're afraid now? This is nothing compared to what's coming."
"What's coming?" she asked curiously.
The lady chuckles again.
"How is your mother?" her question echoed like a sword through the heart to Xena.
"How do you my mother?" Xena stepped back sharply.
The woman paused. "Selene burned bright. Too bright. The night hated her for it."
"What do you mean 'burned'?" Xena's voice cracked.
The woman didn't answer. Instead, she held out her hand. "Let me show you. What you were meant for. What you were chosen for."
"I wasn't chosen," Xena whispered. "I was cursed."
"Same difference." she answered with a weird awe in her eyes.
Her fingers brushed Xena's temple.
The Vision
The woman's fingers brushed Xena's temple.
Her breath hitched.
First Vision
Fire bloomed—slow, hungry, alive.
She stood in the center, but this time she wasn't just of the flames.
She commanded them.
Blue and violet fire curled around her fingers like serpents. Her hair flowed like smoke. The ground beneath her was scorched bone and cinders.
Around her, a kingdom burned—Paradise Hills devoured by fire and ruin.
Screams clawed at the sky.
People knelt in the ash, eyes hollow, faces twisted with worship.
With fear.
Above them, a throne formed from roots and ribcages.
And there he stood.
The faceless man.
Cloaked in black, eyes a furnace of blood and night, fangs glinting like polished knives.
He extended his hand to her.
She took it.
Chains of smoke lashed to her wrists—but she welcomed them.
The faceless man leaned close, his breath like roses and rot.
"You were made for this, my queen."
Xena's eyes turned black.
A cruel smile carved her lips.
She raised her hand—and with one whispered word, the sky split open like glass, and a sea of shadows poured through.
Second Vision: When She Refuses
Darkness fell.
No flame.
No warmth.
Only cold, endless stone.
She stood before the faceless man—but now, he was wounded.
Kneeling.
Burned.
His once-proud cloak torn, fangs cracked and bloodless.
"Come back to me," he begged. "Please. This world is hollow without you."
But she turned away.
And the world shifted.
Adrian screamed as he was pulled into the earth, his body unraveling into smoke and dust.
From his remains—something else rose.
A towering figure with no eyes, just a burning sun in its chest and a jagged smile carved into where its face should be.
It turned to Xena, its voice like the gnashing of teeth on metal:
"You denied the devil… but we are not so easily refused."
Her hands caught fire—not with flame, but with black frost.
She screamed, but her voice was a whisper lost in the void.
And then she looked down—
And saw that her heart was missing.
Only a mirror sat in its place.
And in the mirror, she saw herself—not human. Not anymore.
Then—
She collapsed.
Back in the Forest
Xena jolted backward, gasping, hand pressed to her heart, afraid. "What the hell was that?"
The woman's face turned grave. "A fragment. Of who you'll become. If you survive."
"Survive what?"
"You and your brother were not born. You were forged. Moon-borns. Flame-blooded. One carries the vision, the other the fire."
Xena's fists tightened. "And what about my mother?"
"She made a choice that doomed you both."
A snap in the branches behind them.
The woman froze. "They're coming."
"Who? Who's coming?"
But she was already gone.
The clearing twisted, blurred, and when Xena blinked—
She was standing alone, barefoot, in a circle of scorched earth.
Back at Paradise Hills
Gen stared at the Book of Threes and Moons, now open across her kitchen table, covered in cloth so no one would see it from the windows.
Her hands shook with every turn of the page.
"Twin signs: crescent moon and burning sun. Flame and foresight. The Unbinding. The Rise of the Hollowed King…"
She slammed it shut.
"No," she muttered. "No, not again."
Xavier entered quietly. "Grandma?"
Gen jumped. "What are you doing out of bed?"
"I couldn't asleep."
She studied his face—too pale, too distant. "You saw something else, didn't you?"
He nodded. "It wasn't just a vision. I was there. In some future. Or past. Or somewhere between." He told he.
"Tell me."
"I saw Xena... burning a town to ash. Her eyes weren't hers. And I... I kissed something not human. It drank from me, and I let it."
Gen sat heavily.
"I think we're changing," Xavier whispered. "I feel like I'm not me anymore. And I feel so tired. Tired of it all" he told her, eyes looking devoid of hope.
"Ohhh sweet child" Gen said holding him in her arms.
"When does it all end? And when can I be me?" he asked her as he looked up.
She didn't answer immediately.
"You're still you, baby. But something ancient is waking inside you both. And it's not kind."
Later That Night
Xavier lay on his bed, clutching the dreamcatcher Selene had once hung over his crib. It was frayed now.
Broken in the center.
"What if she knew?" he wondered.
He heard Xena's door creak open.
"I'm back," she said softly.
Xavier sat up. "Where were you?"
"The forest," she replied. "I met someone."
"Who?"
"She called herself the Mother of Echoes."
Xavier's stomach dropped. "That's in the book. Gen showed me. She's not human."
"I don't think she ever pretended to be."
Silence stretched.
Xena looked down. "She said... Mom made a choice that doomed us."
Xavier clenched his jaw. "Do you think she wanted this? For us?"
"No," Xena said, voice small. "But that doesn't matter anymore."
They both stared at each other for a while.
They stared at each other—two shadows in dim light, bound by blood and secrets.
Then—
A sound.
Soft.
Faint.
Tick-tick-tick.
Xavier blinked. "Do you hear that?"
They both turned toward the hallway.
It was coming from Selene's old room.
They rose, moving in silence, bare feet brushing cool wooden floors.
The door was ajar.
Inside, the music box sat open on the vanity—though neither of them had touched it since Xavier's last vision.
Its gears turned slowly.
Delicately.
Tick-tick-tick…
Then, it began to play.
But it wasn't the lullaby.
It was something else.
Low. Distorted. Backwards.
A voice threaded beneath the melody, soft as breath.
"He's coming…"
The mirror above the vanity trembled.
Cracks like spiders across the glass.
And from the reflection—something moved.
Something with Xavier's face.
But not his eyes.
Smiling.